Francesco Furini

In 1633 a well-known Florentine painter of soft, sensual female nudes took holy orders and became the parish priest of Sant'Ansano, a small church in the Mugello hills north of Florence. The painter was Francesco Furini, and the old story says he repented of his nudes and turned to God. Modern research complicates that tidy tale, since he went on painting the same kind of pictures after his ordination.

Furini came from an artistic family. His father Filippo was a portrait painter, one sister painted and another sang at the Medici court, and Francesco trained under Matteo Rosselli, a leading Florentine master. What set him apart was his handling of flesh, a smoky sfumato borrowed from Leonardo's technique of blurred, shadowy transitions, which gave his skin a warm, living softness.

His reputation rests on works like Hylas and the Nymphs of 1630, where six nude women draw a young companion of Hercules down into their pool, a subject that let Furini show off his study of the live model. He also painted religious pictures and frescoes, some for the Medici, and wrote poetry. He died in Florence in 1646, still a serving priest.